#she’s so gay in the gang solves the bathroom problem I love her

[a-nice-egg-offering]

“Those parrothead Broads are wild”

“Yeah I noticed that they’re nuts”

How did u notice that Dee 🤨

[visorforavisor]

so, the press release for series (we don’t call them seasons my side of the Atlantic) sixteen of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia says Dee “fights for […] women’s athletics”, and FX have said this series is going to “rip into the headlines” and that “a few figures from the past rear their heads”.

so. theory time. prediction time.

Carmen’s back?

what is constantly in the news at the minute (especially in the States), supposedly threatening women’s athletics? trans athletes! I can’t think of anything else, except for the occasional claim that athletes are, ahem, artificially improving their performances, but that’s hardly specific to women’s athletics. the only thing I can think of for this to mean is that Dee wants trans women out of women’s sports. (there might be other things. I just can’t think of them.)

Carmen, of course, is the trans woman whom Mac on-and-off dates for a while early in the show and is generally super rude to, and for whom Dee carries a surrogate pregnancy. (figure from the past.)

my prediction is that Dee and Carmen (or just, you know, some generic trans woman, but it’s way better if it’s Carmen, for reasons I’ll touch on later) are competing in the same athletic event, and Carmen does better than Dee. Dee subsequently wants Carmen eliminated from said event because she’s convinced she, Dee, deserved Carmen’s spot.

of course, we the audience know Carmen’s just… a good sportsperson (series six episode one, Mac Fights Gay Marriage: she is multiple times found working out very hard at the gym), and Dee isn’t particularly, and Dee doing worse than Carmen in a sporting event would be far more down to this than at all to do with Dee being cis and Carmen being trans.

but Dee really, really strikes me as the sort of pseudo-feminist to support trans people (series thirteen episode six, The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem: she says she’d have no problem sharing a bathroom with a trans woman)… until certain things happen. like doing worse in a sports competition than one. conditional support, right? conditional acceptance? she’d be a really, really good character to represent people who only support the trans rights that are totally and completely convenient to them already.

Dee is repeatedly shown as the type of supposed feminist who actually is only in favour of women like her (White, rich, yadda yadda yadda) and not intersectional rights (series six episode five, Mac and Charlie: White Trash: her support of marginalised people does not extend to working-class people in the cheaper pool; series thirteen episode six, The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem: she thinks she’s a trans ally but still refers to intersex people as hermaphrodites; series eleven episode nine, The Gang Goes to Hell: Part 1: she’s so non-compassionate to female survivors of assault that she’s willing to pretend to be this in order to coerce consent from men, which is assault; series thirteen episode four, Time’s Up for the Gang: it’s revealed that she assaulted a member of the Gang; series seven episode one, Frank’s Pretty Woman: she’s rude about sex workers).

I expect this type of behaviour includes trans people too.

I have good faith that, if they did do this plot, the show would take Carmen’s side. this is not least because they’ve taken her side literally every time she’s appeared in an episode before, but also because Sunny likes to subvert expectations and I think taking the side of the transphobes would be too obvious for them. they’d want to go against what all of the headlines are saying. they’re pretty good (in general) at not punching down.

I hope this is what that plotline turns out to be, because there are so many things I’d love to see in it. Mac interacting with Carmen again, post-coming-out? could be so fascinating! so many ways that conversation could go! I also think Mac would be pretty likely to try and take the other side to Dee on this and be trans-supportive as he likes to be the righteous one on matters where he can play the gay card (series thirteen episode six, The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem: he insists he as a gay man deserves a special bathroom, as well as correcting the Gang on terminology for intersex people), despite the clear hypocrisy here because in previous encounters with Carmen he’s been pretty nasty about her being trans. (however, in The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem, I really love the detail that he talks about trans people while Dennis and Dee talk about transgender people. such a tiny thing that shows Mac has been spending time in the queer community.) I’d also be very interested to see where Dennis, Charlie, and Frank stand on it. (my guesses are that Dennis would probably go against Dee just because, Frank would be very antiquated about the whole thing leading to Mac having to exasperatedly explain it to him, and Charlie honestly wouldn’t give a shit.) I also just miss my girl Carmen! give Mac some queer friends!

as a side note, I (a trans person) actually really love Carmen’s portrayal throughout the show. Mac Fights Gay Marriage is often misinterpreted as calling Mac gay for being with Carmen, but in reality the Gang say this because it’s so completely not true that this would make him gay (he wasn’t being implied as such yet really), in order to point out how nonsensical it is for Mac to call Carmen’s husband gay. it’s a sort of “well, by your absolute bullshit logic, that would make you gay too, dumbass” thing. the only two minor gripes I have are Carmen being played by a cis actor (I totally forgive them; it wasn’t widely known in 2005 that you should use trans performers for trans roles, plus it’s a cis woman rather than a cis man) and her total lack of reaction to being called a certain slur so often (not that I think the Gang wouldn’t use it, more that this pulls me out of the reality, but McElhenney, Day, and Howerton have said they didn’t know this was a slur, so that explains that). Carmen is consistently defended by the plot and writing, and people like Mac are made to look horrific in the way they treat her. I’ll write a whole thing about it one day, probably. I love her. I just love how nice she is.

anyway. this got so long and rambly, but I hadn’t seen anyone else with this theory so I thought I’d post it!

edits: fixed something I mistyped. also, someone pointed out this could be the bowling pictures we’ve seen, which would make total sense!

[movetothesuburbs]

@magneticghouls first of all... My ask box was apparently turned off so it's good to know I'm an idiot. Secondly thank you for asking

Season 1: Charlie Has Cancer. I love this so from the depths of my heart. The concept of it was like that first idea rcg had for the show. Nothing will ever be as relatable to me as Dennis trying to get out of that conversation as soon as possible. "You can talk to me any time" ... "Oh you meant now?" Fucking incredible.

Season 2: The Gang Exploits a Miracle. I'm gonna be honest s2 is my least fave season. The episodes are all pretty good. They just don't grip me as much. They are bastards to the best degree in this episode though. I've never been Catholic but I'm obsessed with the rituals and imagery. "Am I gay for God?" (Real talk I made a dream daddy meme to that) I love Charlie in all white and Mac in all black.

Season 3: The Gang Gets Whacked. Everything about this 2 parter is funny to me. (Except when I get sad abt Dennis) But! Pussy Hands. Peter Nincompoop. Jackie said she counted that Mac and Frank slap Dennis 13 times in a row and I love that. I think cocaine is funny. I think ruining Crucket's life further is funny. I think watching this ep after binging 5 episodes of the Sopranos is extra funny.

Season 4: It was very nearly Mac's Banging the Waitress but I am a sucker for a musical and a basic bitch so you know it's The Nightman Cometh. It was one of the first eps I ever saw. My best friend showed it to me then immediately showed me a live recording. I get Dayman stuck in my head often. I love Charlie. Also "I'm eating because I'm uncomfortable" Cat eyes Mac makes heart eyes Jack.

Season 5: Mac and Dennis Break Up. This was the first episode I ever saw. My bff was like "watch this they're gay" and by God were they. I think about the line "Far be it from me to keep the flower of you from flourishing" every goddamn day.

Season 6: Who Got Dee Pregnant? Admittedly I'm very soft for Dee Gives Birth, but I'm hella gay for Jimmi Simpson and Halloween. Also I love the reactions to if Mac had been the one. I am a sucker for characters telling conflicting accounts of the same event. I think Dennis looked hot as Luigi and think he could have worked that without a Mario just fine, he just wanted a couples costume with Mac. I will not encourage incest shippers, but Dennis thinking he might have gotten Dee pregnant is the funniest gd thing.

Season 7: The High School Reunion. I love far Mac with all my heart and if I saw that man at a high school reunion I do not care what rep he had in high school I would be on that. Also irl I had a crush on the high school drug dealer so what are standards? I love Dee immediately jumping on being the nastiest meanest bitch ever. I love the dance at the end. I think Tim and Dennis made out in high school. I'm gay for Jason Sudeikis so seeing Schmitty show up was beautiful. Cricket..... Was there. My only regret is that I already knew Mac's legal name is Ronald McDonald so I did not get to experience that reveal as a fresh concept.

Season 8: The Gang Dines Out. Did you ever know that you're my hero? I love endings where the gang appreciates Dee. Episodes that take place in one set are always great. The Waiter is great. Frank and Charlie havin' an anniversary 💙 Dennis did not have to give that speech in front of a crowd. He was going to tell Mac all those things just to his face. But he needed that whole restaurant to know who the real hero is. Dennis Reynolds said fuck the troops. I still don't know what a Groupon is. Also that table being so close to the kitchen door probably violates OSHA guidelines but thay's not a part of why I like the episode, just an observation.

Season 9: The Gang Saves the Day. I love seeing characters just imagine fantasy scenarios. Dee's is inspirational but should have been gayer. Mac is... Stupid but I love him with my whole heart and I support him imagining Dennis crying over his corpse. All hail our mighty and buff Lord. Love Dennis saying he'd rather die than have a broken dick. I love that Charlie's is animated. He is so small. There are two genders: janitor or waitress. The most relatable is Frank tho. You eat those hotdogs bitch

Season 10: The Gang Goes on Family Fight. I'm a slut for Argyle sweater vests and Dennis having a mental breakdown. Also Charlie being one of the survey takers was priceless.

Season 11: It should come as no surprise that my favorite of this season (and the series as a whole) is Mac and Dennis Move to the Suburbs. I love every single moment of this episode. I love the breakdown of their sanity. Rage fuels me. People think Dennis is a psychopath but who in this episode is feeding their roommate a dead dog? Not Dennis. What would be different if Dennis was the house husband? You know Wally just wanted to be nice to the gay couple that moved next door but they acted Like That. I'd love to make a longer post just about this episode. Some guy in fb was like "the seasons sucked after sesson 8" and everyone was like "okay but suburbs in season 11 tho" and they guy was like "okay u right" Suburbs is the episode that brings the gays and straights together and will bring us world peace

Season 12: This wss hard cuz I think this is my favorite season overall. And I'm gonna be real controversial here and let you know my fave ep is Dennis' Double Life. I love the concept. I love the convoluted scheme. I would die for Mandy. I know there's a lot with real life stuff happening and how it affected things after but I wanna appreciate it as is. Sometimes you juat have so many big feelings that you run away to North Dakota to be a dad I guess. "I'm the lover obviously" "I have a good plan but you wouldn't listen to it anyway" Did I mention I love Mandy? Maybe it's that I grew up in the Midwest but I understand her on such a deep level. I love this episode so much.

Season 13: The Gang Solves the Bathroom Problem. Every time I go into a bathroom I just think "animal shithouse" nonbinary/genderfluid Charlie rights. Hawaiin shirts. I also love Jimmy Buffett. I love they all sing the wrong song. "As a straight man" in the least convincing way. This episode speaks to me on all levels.

[mhaccunoval]

dennis is a fucking BASTARD for making mac feel bad about his attraction to carmen

carmen is a sweet woman and a beautiful one too. and mac really likes her, always has! but noooo. dennis got into his head with worsening whatever little bit of transphobia he already had and then it stayed consistent until probably about s13 (where he's ""woke"" in gang solves the bathroom problem)

i love dennis but also i'm just pissed that he is a factor as to why carmen and mac never got together. and yeah, maybe mac would have realized he was gay during their relationship if they did get together.. but it's ok!!! carmen is el gee bee tea so she gets the struggle!!

i'm just angry wittle man rn >:[

[oumakokichi]

I was wondering what you thought of the character Oowada Mondo? I was reading your meta of Celestia and i was wondering what you thought of him as a culprit?

Mondo isn’t exactly one of my favorite characters from dr1,but I do think he worked well as a culprit.

Sdr2 and ndrv3 both had stronger Chapter 2s in my opinion,but dr1 Chapter 2 still is pretty decent in its own way. Mostly, it suffersfrom the rather rushed relationship between Mondo and Ishimaru, as well as fromthe messy implications of Chihiro “hiding as a girl” to avoid being calledweak. But the former is something that several characters in the series havesuffered from, not just Mondo and Ishimaru, and the latter is unrelated to thequestion of Mondo’s character, so I won’t dwell on it too much.

In hindsight, I would say Mondo reads as a sort of prototypefor Juzo and Momota both. Like Juzo, he’s quick to anger, wants to solveproblems with his fists, and rarely thinks things through before rushing toaction—which can be useful, sometimes, but often leads him to more trouble thanit’s worth, and eventually does wind up being the reason that he commitsmurder.

There’s also the matter of Juzo being canonically confirmedgay, which adds another lens through which to view the sauna scene with Mondoand Ishimaru. While I do think the sauna scene was originally meant as a mix ofbaiting and comic relief, it’s true that Juzo and Mondo both deal heavily inrepressed emotions, and both feel like they would absolutely be better off deadif anyone knew their darkest secrets. Considering the heavy stigma associatedwith being openly gay in an environment very filled with toxic masculinity(like, for instance, a biker gang), there’s a lot of room to read into Mondo asa very closeted individual.

Meanwhile, Momota shares far more similarities in terms ofappearance and attitude with Leon at a first glance, but I think it’s true thathe and Mondo are both the characters that deal the most with “what it means tobe a man,” “real men keeping their promises, etc. He too shares many of thesame issues of toxic masculinity that Juzo and Mondo both do, though in Momota’scase, a lot of this is because his character is meant to imitate the “perfectshounen protag.” So the violence and harmful aspects of this character trait golargely unexplored with him.

Still, Mondo’s character was interesting to look at from theaspect of being a sort of prototype figure for future characters. I couldeasily see the similarities there on my recent dr1 reread, and it’s hard not tosympathize with him to some degree for falling so pitifully into the trap Junkoset with the “embarrassing secrets” motive in Chapter 2.

One of the things I like best about both the motive andMondo’s character though is perhaps the fact that his desperate need to be “strong”in the eyes of others ties in perfectly with DR’s more general commentary onsocietal pressure. The need to succeed in Japanese culture, both academicallyand socially, is incredibly strong, and not a laughing matter at all. Suiciderates among high schoolers and college students are extremely high in Japan. One of the things DR has always done verywell with as a franchise is commenting on this extreme societal pressure byputting it through the lens of “SHSL Talents” and kids who feel they have to bethe absolute best at what they do,otherwise they’ll be discarded by society as a whole.

Mondo’s obsession with strength reflected that societalpressure quite well, especially with its added layer of toxic masculinity.There’s nothing admirable or enviable about Mondo, by the time the trial ends:neither his strength nor his talent account for anything. He’s just… rather pathetic,really, a scared kid who snapped under pressure and killed someone weaker andsmaller than him, in order to try and prove himself strong. All his talk about “men’spromises” and “protecting the weak” ultimately amount to nothing, because itwas those things which drove him to want to take his secret of “killing hisbrother” with him to his grave in the first place.

And that hollow realization also embodies Junko’s idea of “despair”so well, especially in the first game. In sdr2, the motives were far morepointed and deliberate, usually guaranteed to target at least a few people, oreven one specific person. As Kodaka himself has said, Junko cared very littleabout the sdr2 kids overall. To her, they were small fry; her objective wassimply to get them back to the way they were, and especially to get Kamukuraback. The killing game was simply a means to pass the time until that happened.

But in dr1, the killing game itself is the end goal. Junko’stwisted “love” for her classmates is shown by the fact that she wanted them todespair on their own, through much more general, less targeted motives. Thefirst three chapters illustrate this particularly well: Leon, Mondo, and Celesall kill for very mundane, completely-avoidable reasons, like wanting toescape, the terror of a secret being exposed, or plain and simple greed.

If dr1 had been a tad more polished, I feel like Mondo could’vereally been shaped into a more interesting character. Sadly though, I don’tthink Chapter 2 ever really reached his full potential. The main redeemingpoint of his character was supposed to be his newfound bond with Ishimaru, andhis loyalty to both him and his gang members. But this aspect of his characterwasn’t explored almost at all; if anything, him killing Chihiro went directlyagainst what was expected of him as both a biker gang leader and a “real man.”

We’re not even really given an explanation as to why he and Ishimaru became so close inthe span of about a day or so. Sure, there’s room to read between the lines asto what might have happened in the sauna scene—but it’s ultimately all justspeculation. Had their interaction been more gradual, leading up to a moreunderstandable friendship (or more than that), that would’ve been understandable.

But it ultimately felt very flat in the end, as did Ishimaru’sbreakdown over his death. Rather than exploring Ishimaru’s character on hisown, he was mostly just there to mourn over Mondo’s instead, all without anyreal reason provided for it by the plot other than “they had one really sweatynight in the sauna that we mostly played for comic relief.”

We’re meant to feel sympathetic for Mondo in the end—arguablymore sympathetic than Leon, who tries to claim self-defense in Chapter 1 but isrightfully called out on having gone willingly back to his room to get thetools to hunt down Maizono in the bathroom and kill her, even though he had aperfect opportunity to run away without doing anything to her at all.

Mondo’s crime was unplanned, and took place in the heat ofthe moment, that much is certain. But his admission to it later on is somewhatmarred by the fact that he does, in fact, deny it fervently early on, eventrying to rush the trial by saying that Togami did it when the group discoversthat Togami posed the body. Despite his apparent guilt over what happened,there’s still undeniably an aspect of self-interest to his crime which is neveractually addressed within the trial much, and that makes it somewhat hard toconsider him as sympathetic of a character as the narrative tries to act.

Also, this is perhaps somewhat nitpicky, but his executionis… honestly really bad. It’s quite hard to take it seriously or read into itmuch when it’s based on a pretty racist folktale, and when it’s mostly meantfor funny meme material. This sort of bouncing between everything being a hugejoke and everything being actually, seriously traumatic is pretty ongoingwithin the whole Mondo-Ishimaru dynamic, though (Ishida is another example of “characterdevelopment” being done only as a joke).

In any case, these are pretty much my thoughts on Mondo! He’snot my least favorite character in DR by any means, or even in dr1, but I dofeel there was a lot that could’ve been improved about him, and about dr1Chapter 2 in general.  Still, there areaspects and motifs about his character that I feel were reflected in characterswhich came after him, and I can respect that his character arc tied in quitewell with DR’s larger themes about the pressure to succeed, and how it oftencauses kids to snap and do things which they’re unable to take back.

I hope I was able to answer your question, anon! Thank youfor asking; it’s always really fun to be able to write meta about some of theother games sometimes!

[thehorrorofnachosandhamantaschen]

A Mist Minute: Episode 5 - The Waiting Room

Sometimes we just don’t have the time to make a whole podcast episode about something like a TV show because they’re sooooo many episodes long and we’d need a million podcasts to cover them adequately. Who has time for a million episodes? Certainly not us! Just putting out 40 or so a year is killing us already and the sacrifices we’ve had to make in our personal lives are unmentionable. But every now and then there comes a TV show, nay, TV event, that we feel that we have to cover, especially when they relate to episodes we’ve covered already. I am of course talking about the new The Mist show, based off of the story by Stephen King (And 2007 Film) which we have definitively covered more extensively than anyone else on the internet ever and you can listen to HERE. So without further ado, the first of our “Minute” series, The Mist: Episode 5 - The Waiting Room:

EPISODE FIVE - THE WAITING ROOM

The Gang goes to the hospital to look after Amnesia Army Guy’s gunshot leg.The hospital looks to be totally fine because they have a generator and for some reason that works when cars don’t. The doctors take care of the leg so problem solved! Good thing too because if it was a serious problem they would have needed stuff from the East Wing of the hospital, which is full of mist. I’m sure after all that talking up about how mist filled the East Wing is that it will never become a plot point in the future.

FLASHBACK TIME! Gaunt Mom and Dad have just moved into their house. Look how young and loving they are!

Back at the hospital Dad is running around asking people if they’ve seen his wife and daughter because he hasn’t seen the rest of the series and known that they’re in the mall. He runs into his Douche Brother who had been stabbed in the guts with a piece of rebar by some mysterious youths who knew things about him that they shouldn’t have. Douche Bro wants Dad to shoot him because he’s going to die of an infection but Dad won’t, not even after Douche Bro calls him a sloppy pussy and a vagina. Oh brothers!

FLASHBACK! Douche Bro is over visiting Dad and says some suggestively inappropriate things about Gaunt Mom. Then Gaunt Mom and Dad have some sexy sex. FINALLY.

Dad talks to the doctor about Douche Bro who is totally going to die unless he can get to the mist filled side of the hospital and operate to get the rebar out. Dad says he’ll give it a try if the doctor can walk him through it.

Gaunt Addict looks for a bear in the hospital gift shop to give to Amnesia Army Guy now that he’s better and when she goes to pay finds that the guy at the counter has slit his wrists, so she steals it. She goes to the nurse’s station to ask the whereabouts of Brian Hunt (Amnesia Army Guy’s real name) and is directed to a room with a different guy in it. Turns out that this dude is actually Brian Hunt and Amnesia Army Guy had his wallet when he came to which is why HE thought he was Brian Hunt. What a comedy of amnesia errors! Anyhow, Amnesia Army Guy’s name is really Jonah Dixon.

Gaunt Friend runs into the homophobic football player dude from the party and kisses him in the bathroom. The football player beats him up, but then they make out hardcore as it is a thin line between fucking and fighting. They showed the straight sex earlier but god forbid they show some gay sex! DOUBLE STANDARDS!

FLASHBACK AGAIN! Dad asks Gaunt Mom what was up between her and his brother earlier and as hinted throughout the earlier episodes she had banged around town in her youth and everyone thinks she’s a big old slut.

Dad gives now post-coital Gaunt Friend the car keys in case he doesn’t return and heads over through the mist to the East Wing with his brother to do surgery. Gaunt Addict shows up, tells him her safe word is “Dolphin”, steals the key, and takes off with the car.

Amnesia Army Guy wakes up and goes looking for Gaunt Addict, going into the room of actual Brian Hunt. The two face off!

Dad and Douche Bro make it through the mist to the OR, only downside is that bro’s fingernails start bleeding for some reason. The surgery goes ok though, which is shocking considering that Dad isn’t a doctor and removing a piece of rebar from someone’s liver is probably some real ass surgery.

YET ANOTHER FLASHBACK! Gaunt Mom and Dad are talking and it turns out that Gaunt Daughter is not actually his kid! Another thing that I’m sure won’t be a future plot point!

They’re heading back to the hospital after the surgery and Dad slips in a pool of blood, rolling his brother down the misty hallway on the gurney. When he catches up to him a bunch of leaches have started pouring out of the ceiling and into his liver wound. Dad has to shoot him as the leaches go to leach town on him.

FINAL FLASHBACK! Dad says he’ll do anything for Gaunt Mom. ANYTHING. “Anything” meaning obviously killing a dude, even his own brother who maybe banged her in the past.

The Mist, The Mist, The Mist, what are you doing? You’ve finally delivered on your promise of sexy sex, both straight and gay so good on you for being inclusive, but how about your promise of making anything related to the original novella or movie? If you had called the show “A Bunch of Weird Stuff Happens For No Reason In A Foggy Town” that would be closer to what you’re actually delivering than anything related to the actual “The Mist”.

We only get a small slice of the cast here is a somewhat limited episode in one location which harkens to the “bottle episodes” some series have done in order to cut costs, most notably recently the episode of Breaking Bad where Walt spends almost the whole thing trying to kill that fly in one room. Perhaps next episode will be entirely Church focused and the following entirely Mall focused, but when you’re only working with 10 episodes to begin with there’s not a lot of time for that, and we’re already half way through the series.

I’m not saying the show doesn’t know what it’s doing, I’m just saying that what it’s doing ultimately isn’t going to make any sense. Granted, halfway through the new season of Twin Peaks I didn’t know what’s going on and they seem to be steering it in the right direction, but that’s Twin Peaks, and this is no Twin Peaks. I remember a story where Susan Orleans was pumped when they were going to make a movie out of her book “The Orchid Thief”, and then was unimpressed when the result of that turned out to be “Adaptation”, which is a great movie, but a terrible adaptation. I imagine Stephen King is in the same league where he said “Mist TV show? Go for it!” and then he’s seeing this and is unimpressed. Just like me.

Also check out:

Episode 11 - The Mist v. The Mist

A Mist Minute: Episode 1 - Pilot

A Mist Minute: Episode 2 - Withdrawal

A Mist Minute: Episode 3 - Show and Tell

A Mist Minute: Episode 4 - Pequod

A Mist Minute: Episode 6 - The Devil You Know

A Mist Minute: Episode 7 - Over the River and Through the Woods

A Mist Minute: Episode 8 - The Law of Nature

A Mist Minute: Episode 9 - The Waking Dream

A Mist Minute: Episode 10 - The Tenth Meal

A Mist Minute: Show Retrospective

Like us on Facebook

Listen: iTunes - Stitcher - Google Play Music - Overcast - Podbean - TuneIn - Stream